Economic Indicators

December 2009; VOL. 116; NO. 13Chemical Engineering copyright @ 2009 (ISSN 0009-2460) is published monthly, with an additional issue in October, by Access Intelligence, LLC, 4 Choke Cherry Road, 2nd Floor, Rockville, MD, 20850. Chemical Engineering Executive, Editorial, Advertising and Publication Offices: 110 William Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10038; Phone: 212-621-4674, Fax: 212-621-4694. Subscription rates: $59.00 U.S. and U.S. possessions, Canada, Mexico; $179 International. $20.00 Back issue & Single copy sales. Periodicals postage paid at Rockville, MD and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Chemical Engineering, Fulfillment Manager, P.O. Box 3588, Northbrook, IL 60065-3588. Phone: 847-564-9290, Fax: 847-564-9453, email: clientservices@che.com. Change of address, two to eight week notice requested. For information regarding article reprints, please contact Angie Van Gorder at angie.vangorder@theygsgroup.com. Contents may not be reproduced in any form without written permission. Publica-tions Mail Product Sales Agreement No. PM40063731. Return undeliverable Canadian Addresses to: P.O. Box 1632, Windsor, ON N9A7C9.

For additional news as it develops, please visit www.che.com

Plant WatchSiemens gasification technology selected for Taylorville Energy CenterNovember 10, 2009 — Siemens Energy, Inc. (Orlando, Fla.; www.siemens.com) has been chosen to provide the coal gasifica-tion technology for the Taylorville Energy Center (TEC), the 730-MW (gross) ad-vanced clean-coal generating plant being developed near Taylorville, Ill. TEC will be one of the nation’s first commercial-scale, coal gasification plants with carbon capture and storage (CCS) capability. TEC’s integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) tech-nology will capture and provide storage for at least 50% of the carbon dioxide that would otherwise enter the atmosphere. TEC is projected to be operational in 2014.

Envergent biomass pyrolysis process will power new facility in EuropeNovember 4, 2009 — A new biomass-to-oil power plant in Europe will use a process developed by Envergent Technologies (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.envergenttech.com), a Honeywell (Morris Township, N.J.; www.honeywell.com) company. Plans for the fa-cility, which is projected to begin operation in 2012, followed an agreement between Envergent and Industria e Innovazione, an Italian power generation company. The new European facility will be designed to process about 150 metric tons (dry) per day of a mixture of pine forest residues and clean de-molition wood, and convert the biomass mix into pyrolysis oil. Envergent is a joint venture between UOP (Des Plaines, Ill.; www.uop.com) and Ensyn Corp. (Wilmington, Del.; www.ensyn.com).

Another Unipol polyethylene plant slated for ChinaNovember 4, 2009 — Univation Technologies LLC (Houston; www.univation.com) has an-nounced that Yulin Energy and Chemical Ltd. of Yanchang Petroleum Group Co. (Yulin) has selected Univation’s Unipol PE Process for a 300,000 metric ton per year (m.t./yr) poly-ethylene (PE) plant. The facility will be located in Shaanxi Province, People’s Republic of China. The Unipol PE Process facility will be fed by a unique combination of conventional feedstock and coal-to-olefins feedstock. Planned startup of the facility is 2013.

Aquatech to work on water treatment and reuse projects in EgyptOctober 30, 2009— Aquatech Corp. (Can-

onsburg, Pa.; www.aquatech.com) has been awarded a contract to supply a multiple-effect-distillation (MED) seawater-desalination system for the Abu Qir Thermal Power Plant in Egypt. The facility will supply 10,000 m3/d of fresh water to the power sta-tion’s boilers and other users. Earlier this year Aquatech was also awarded a wastewater reuse project for a chemical facility by TCI Sanmar Chemicals LLC, located at Port Said, Egypt. The reuse system will have a capacity of 8,500 m3/d to recover over 90% of the wa-ter suitable for use within the complex.

Linde to invest in largest air- separation unit in IndiaOctober 27, 2009 — The Linde Group (Mu-nich, Germany; www.linde.com) has an-nounced that it will build and commission a state-of-the-art, 2,550 m.t./d air separa-tion unit (ASU) at Tata Steel Ltd’s plant in Jamshedpur, India. Once commissioned in early 2012, this will be the largest air separation plant in India and one of Linde’s largest in Asia. The investment for the new ASU amounts to nearly €85 million, bringing Linde’s total investment in India over the last three years to approximately €285 million.

Celanese to expand emulsions manufacturing in ChinaOctober 26, 2009 — Celanese Corp. (Dallas, Tex.; www.celanese.com) has announced it is expanding its vinyl acetate/ethylene (VAE) manufacturing facility at its Nanjing, China, integrated chemical complex. The investment will support continued growth plans for the Celanese Emulsion Polymers business throughout Asia, including China, India and Southeast Asia and Australia. The expanded facility will double the company’s VAE capacity in the region and is expected to be operational the first half of 2011.

mergers and acquisitionsDow Corning acquires U.S. and Brazilian silicon-metal-manufacturing assetsNovember 6, 2009 — Dow Corning Corp. (Midland, Mich.; www.dowcorning.com) has acquired two chemical-grade-silicon manufacturing assets from Globe Specialty Metals, in an acquisition valued at ap-proximately $175 million. Dow Corning pur-chased 100% of Globe Metais Indústria e Comércio S.A., a silicon metal manufacturer in Pará, Brazil, which will immediately begin operating as Dow Corning Metais do Pará Ltda. Dow Corning has also acquired a 49%

interest in Globe Metallurgical Inc.’s silicon manufacturing operation in Alloy, West Vir-ginia. The operation will continue to operate as WVA Manufacturing LLC.

Arkema proposes to close a PVC production unitNovember 6, 2009 — Arkema (Colombes, France; www.arkema.com) has proposed a plan to shut down a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production unit in Balan, France. The Balan facility currently has three PVC units with a 325,000-ton overall capacity. The smallest of these three units, with a 30,000 ton/yr capacity, will be closed, while the two remaining plants will be modernized. This plan is expected to be implemented 2nd Q 2010.

BASF to realign its fuel cell businessNovember 5, 2009 — BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) is realigning its business for the fuel cell market. In the future, competencies for the production of high-temperature, membrane-electrode assem-blies (MEAs) will be concentrated in Som-erset, N.J. Operational activities at the BASF Fuel Cell GmbH site in Frankfurt, Germany, will be discontinued effective December 31, 2009. BASF plans to close the Frankfurt site in the course of 2010.

Alstom establishes carbon capture unit with Lummus acquisitionOctober 30, 2009 — Alstom (Levallois-Perret, France; www.alstom.com) has established a new unit, Alstom Carbon Capture GmbH, with the acquisition of the former Lummus Global. The new unit has the capabilities re-quired for the design and turnkey delivery of CO2-capture plants and will be integrated into Alstom’s existing carbon-capture-sys-tems activities. Alstom is currently involved at various stages in ten demonstration projects of CO2 capture systems.

Milliken expands colorants portfolio for global thermoset plastics industryOctober 14, 2009 — Milliken & Co. (Spar-tanburg, S.C.; www.millikenchemical.com), through a subsidiary, has acquired the assets of Rebus, Inc., a North American provider of pigment and additive disper-sions for the thermoset-plastics industrial-coatings markets. Milliken will continue to operate Rebus’s existing manufacturing facility in Aston, Pa. ■

Dorothy Lozowski

Business neWs

FOR MORE ECONOMIC INDICATORS, SEE NExT PAGE ChemiCal engineering www.Che.Com DeCember 2009 63

Economic Indicators

CURRENT BUSINESS INDICATORS LATEST PREVIOUS YEAR AGO

CPI output index (2000 = 100) Oct. '09 = 94.2 Sep. '09 = 94.0 Aug. '09 = 93.2 Oct. '08 = 101.0

CPI value of output, $ billions Sep. '09 = 1,491.0 Aug. '09 = 1,481.5 Jul. '09 = 1,454.9 Sep. '08 = 1,835.2

CPI operating rate, % Oct. '09 = 69.6 Sep. '09 = 69.3 Aug. '09 = 68.6 Oct. '08 = 73.7

Producer prices, industrial chemicals (1982 = 100) Oct. '09 = 243.3 Sep. '09 = 248.4 Aug. '09 = 236.9 Oct. '08 = 275.7

Industrial Production in Manufacturing (2002=100)* Oct. '09 = 97.6 Sep. '09 = 97.7 Aug. '09 = 97.0 Oct. '08 = 106.0

Hourly earnings index, chemical & allied products (1992 = 100) Oct. '09 = 149.3 Sep. '09 = 150.1 Aug. '09 = 148.7 Oct. '08 = 143.6

Productivity index, chemicals & allied products (1992 = 100) Oct. '09 = 137.1 Sep. '09 = 136.0 Aug. '09 = 134.3 Oct. '08 = 128.9

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Annual Index: 2001 = 1,093.9 2003 = 1,123.6 2005 = 1,244.5 2007 = 1,373.3 2002 = 1,104.2 2004 = 1,178.5 2006 = 1,302.3 2008 = 1,449.3

CURRENT TRENDS

September capital equipment pries (as re-

flected in the Chemical En-gineering Plant Cost Index) increased by 0.7% over the previous month — less than half the increase from July to August, which amounted to the largest jump since equipment prices bottomed out in May.

Meanwhile, the CPI output index and operating rate continue to climb, but each is still below its level of the same period one year ago.

Visit www.che.com/pci for more on capital cost trends and methodology. ■

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING PLANT COST INDEX (CEPCI)

(1957-59 = 100) Sep. '09Prelim.

Aug. '09Final

Sep. '08Final

CE Index 525.6 521.9 608.9Equipment 621.5 615.8 744.4 Heat exchangers & tanks 563.3 560.9 758.4 Process machinery 604.0 599.1 674.3 Pipe, valves & fittings 768.3 752.0 865.6 Process instruments 409.6 400.7 446.8 Pumps & compressors 895.9 895.9 886.3 Electrical equipment 464.7 462.1 468.5 Structural supports & misc 632.5 630.8 817.8Construction labor 327.1 327.5 328.2Buildings 493.0 491.1 529.9Engineering & supervision 345.4 346.0 351.7

Starting with the April 2007 Final numbers, several of the data series for labor and compressors have been converted to accommodate series IDs that were discontinued by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Annual Index:

2001 = 394.3

2002 = 395.6

2003 = 402.0

2004 = 444.2

2005 = 468.2

2006 = 499.6

2007 = 525.4

2008 = 575.4

*Due to discontinuance, the Index of Industrial Activity has been replaced by the Industrial Production in Manufacturing index from the U.S. Federal Reserve Board. Current business indicators provided by Global insight, Inc., Lexington, Mass.

MARSHALL & SWIFT EQUIPMENT COST INDEX

(1926 = 100) 3rd Q 2009

2nd Q 2009

1st Q 2009

4th Q 2008

3rd Q 2008

M & S INDEx 1,446.4 1,462.9 1,477.7 1,487.2 1,469.5

Process industries, average 1,515.1 1,534.2 1,553.2 1,561.2 1,538.2 Cement 1,509.7 1,532.5 1,551.1 1,553.4 1,522.2 Chemicals 1,485.8 1,504.8 1,523.8 1,533.7 1,511.5 Clay products 1,495.8 1,512.9 1,526.4 1,524.4 1,495.6 Glass 1,400.4 1,420.1 1,439.8 1,448.1 1,432.4 Paint 1,515.1 1,535.9 1,554.1 1,564.2 1,543.9 Paper 1,416.3 1,435.6 1,453.3 1,462.9 1,443.1 Petroleum products 1,625.2 1,643.5 1,663.6 1,668.9 1,644.4 Rubber 1,560.7 1,581.1 1,600.3 1,604.6 1,575.6 Related industries Electrical power 1,370.8 1,394.7 1,425.0 1,454.2 1,454.4 Mining, milling 1,547.6 1,562.9 1,573.0 1,567.5 1,546.2 Refrigeration 1,767.3 1,789.0 1,807.3 1,818.1 1,793.1 Steam power 1,471.4 1,490.8 1,509.3 1,521.9 1,499.3

64 ChemiCal engineering www.Che.Com DeCember 2009